Babysitting the Axolotls

A little change from the norm, I am babysitting Shona's (and Maries) Axolotls hatchlings.

I bought her a pair of male Axolotls for Christmas 2012 (she got them a couple of months before) and she named them Patrick and Philip.

Philip

Turns out Philip was a girl.  They found this out because Patrick grew two things that boys usually have, and started making out with a plastic tree, leaving deposits of..... well, you know...... everywhere.  Philip just grew bigger all over.

When Philip failed to grow his boy lumps it was decided he must be a she and was renamed Penelope. 

Penelope

An evening a couple of weeks I heard a strange little noise, like a whoop of excitement, and a small child (well, a 20 yr old) squealing that they had eggs in their tank.

Now these creatures eat their young, so we needed to get them out asap.  They are also quite difficult to raise as finding food small enough is very tricky.

I have taken the photos with a pair of tweezers as a scale guide.

A friend gave her a small tank so she could house the youngsters separately, then a lovely guy called Chris up at Maidenhead Aquatics brought her in some micro-worms to try and feed them on.

The food is a culture that grows, the worms are so tiny I cannot see them, it just looks like a smudge to me on the side of the pot.  I have to sweep up the smudge with a tiny paintbrush and wiggle it about in the tank water.

I will let you know if the attempts to raise the young are successful.